


Cross Your I's, and Dot Your T's

by PeachyRenjun



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Angst, Asexual Character, Drabble Collection, Fluff, M/M, Run-On Sentences
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-06-08 11:30:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15242421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PeachyRenjun/pseuds/PeachyRenjun
Summary: Non-traditional abo. Drabble series.





	Cross Your I's, and Dot Your T's

**Author's Note:**

> So it's like a non-au abo au, if that makes sense? The drabbles are in chronological order, one for each member. Johnny's takes place around late 2011, and the rest are between 2015 and 2018. 
> 
> Each drabble has the main ship marked, as well as an M if it has inappropriate content. No dreamies are included in drabbles with inappropriate content. All drabbles should stand on their own, although they make more sense taken together.
> 
> Also: quick rundown of this abo universe. Humans, not wolves. Knotting and claiming are a thing, heats aren't.

Johnny (Johnny/Sehun) (Implied M)

This isn’t what alphas are supposed to do, not to each other, but Johnny loves the way that Sehun’s lips redden, the way his eyes dilate, the way that he can press Johnny into the practice room wall when everyone else leaves and never feel like too much. Sehun is his best friend, and maybe they’ve never talked about what they’re doing or where they want this to go, but Johnny still loves this feeling. Maybe this is what they mean when they talk about young, dumb, stupid, hormonal alphas.

This part--the part where they press each other into whatever surface they can find and try to get each other off however they know how--this part sprung from hormones and the fact that neither of them are close enough to the omegas or the girls to ever try and get off with one of them. But it’s the other times that Johnny loves the most. It’s the times that they’ll sit at some dumb café with really terrible lattés that they’ll drink anyway and just talk about anything and everything and maybe it’s friendship but maybe it’s not and maybe it doesn’t really matter.

Sehun knows all his secrets, has seen his worst moments and his best and still stands by his side like a best friend should. And sure, Johnny loves him more than anyone should ever love their best friend, but he’s pretty damn sure Sehun loves him too. To the end of the world and back, they had promised a few years before when they were younger and dumber and less hormonal.

“Youngho! Guess what!” Sehun bursts through the door of the dorm with the most excited look Johnny’s ever seen on him in the three, nearly four years they’ve known each other.

“You got through another round?” Johnny had been eliminated a round or two earlier, and had tried to reason with himself that he was still young, and that maybe he had a chance at debuting with the next group if he stuck around long enough.

“I got through every round,” Sehun says. “They’ve promised me a spot in the final group.” He sits next to Johnny on the couch and takes his hands in his and Johnny can barely bring himself to look him in the eye.

“Congratulations,” Johnny says, trying not to sound like he’s choking on the words. “I’m so happy for you.”

Sehun snuggles into his side. “Hey, don’t worry. I’m sure your time will come soon, and this won’t change anything between us, alright?”

Johnny tries to ignore the sinking feeling he gets at those words. He tries even harder to ignore how, with every practice session that Sehun now spends with the group that he’ll debut with and away from Johnny, it feels like their promise is slipping away.

He tries his hardest to ignore the way that Sehun never goes out to their shitty coffee dates anymore but takes some of the omegas in his new group out to get equally shitty bubble tea.

Johnny should know by now that promises are meant to be broken.

 

Yuta (Hansol/Yuta) (M)

It’s painful. The way that Hansol, this strong, handsome alpha, makes love to Yuta is always so fucking painful. And he knows it’s not Hansol’s fault for being a big alpha with a big cock and a bigger knot, but Yuta’s beta body really was not made for this.

Yuta bites Hansol’s pillow and clutches the bedsheets in tight fingers as Hansol thrusts into him at what could best be described as the pace of a snail. Hansol always tries to be careful with him, but it’s never enough to stop this from being half a step away from hell on earth and yet Yuta can’t stop himself from telling Hansol to keep going. To go faster. To drill him into this fucking bed and to push his knot into Yuta like he’s an omega and breed him.

Yuta’s not terribly masochistic--maybe a little--so it’s the way that Hansol looks at him when he’s knotted inside him like he hung the stars in the fucking sky that makes Yuta keep coming back to this.

It’s times like these that make Yuta wish he wasn’t a beta. Because if he was an alpha, he’d be able to be the strong boyfriend that omegas want. He could knot them and claim them and do all of the things that omegas need. And if he was an omega, then he could lay here beneath this alpha that isn’t his to keep and take his knot without screaming. He could make Hansol happy. He could make him stay.

 

Jaehyun (Jaehyun/Doyoung/Taeyong)

Jaehyun knows the kind of looks that he gets whenever he goes out with Taeyong and Doyoung. They’re still unknown enough, as rookies, to fly under the radar of celebrity and instead get noticed for other things. Like the way one alpha is holding two omegas’ hands at the same time.

Most people aren’t callous enough to approach them or say anything, they just give them disapproving stares from across the road as Doyoung wipes a dot of ice cream from his upper lip and Taeyong leans into his side. The few that do say something generally fall into two categories: the people that lash out at Jaehyun, and the people that criticize his boyfriends.

Jaehyun can handle the first group. He knows that people might not understand the way that they work together, that he really loves both of them so much and that they love each other too and that he wakes up everyday thinking he’s so lucky to be able to have each of them individually, let alone both of them together. He can handle people who call him the typical alpha jerk who plays with omegas’ feelings just because he’s handsome enough to get away with it. He can handle that.

What he can’t handle, at least not with a straight face and a calm voice, is the people who will call his boyfriends whores to their faces. Who will tell them that they’re devaluing themselves, as if omegas have a value to be quantified and that value slips away whenever they’re in another relationship. These people are always the worst when they see the rare times that Doyoung and Taeyong hold hands or kiss each other on the cheek. Because they can’t handle omegas that make their own choices.

And sometimes, Doyoung and Taeyong have to drag him away from an argument with a passerby that insulted them, back to the dorms where they can lay in a bed that is way too small for the three of them and just exist. Together.

 

Mark (unrequited Mark/Donghyuck)

Donghyuck isn’t subtle, never has been, and that’s what makes the whole thing a million times worse. Because Donghyuck’s his best friend, and Mark hates the idea of making him upset, especially when every single one of the other trainees will know that he was the one that made him upset and why.

The thing is, Donghyuck’s in love with him. And Mark really only likes girls. He knows it’s perfectly normal for alpha guys to like omega guys, and by those rules he should probably be in love with Donghyuck the same way Donghyuck loves him, but he’s just never felt that kind of pull towards a guy, no matter what kind of sub-gender they have.

Mark isn’t blind. He knows that most of the trainees that they’re going to debut with have either been screwing each other, are in love with each other, or both, and it starts to eat away at him after a while because he almost starts to wish that he did like Donghyuck, just so that Donghyuck wouldn’t have to feel unwanted.

 

Taeyong (none)

“They like choosing omegas as leaders,” Leeteuk tells him over lunch a few weeks before their debut. “They think that we’re shapeable, that they can bend the rest of the group through us.”

“Can they?” Taeyong asks, and Leeteuk gives him a look.

“That depends on you,” Leeteuk says, and Taeyong appreciates that Leeteuk took him out to eat and reassure him that he can do this because he’s not the first omega leader and won’t be the last, but he knows that he’s still standing on uncertain ground.

He may not be the first omega leader, but he’s the first omega leader under SM who’s not a beta in the public’s eyes. People don’t like to admit that omegas make good leaders, especially not when the group that they are leading has several alphas and betas. It shouldn’t be Taeyong leading this group, not according to the general public. It should be Taeil, as the oldest, a beta. Maybe Jaehyun if they really wanted an alpha, but he was a bit too close to being one of the youngest members of this first unit for that to work. And Taeil’s not in the main debut song, and he really wouldn’t want to be leader anyways.

And so, like Leeteuk and Taeyeon and Suho before him, Taeyong will be an omega leading an SM group. But unlike them, he’s going to have to face the backlash. And that’s not something Leeteuk can prepare him for over lunch.

 

Jisung (none)

There’s downsides to being the youngest. The biggest one, Jisung thinks, is that everyone is always trying to guess how you’ll be when you grow up. From the time he was a trainee, the older trainees and management would always try to predict how little baby alpha Jisung would grow up. It’s tiring.

He watches the older alpha trainees and the debuted alpha artists under SM. They’re all tall, muscular, usually with a commanding presence and a goofy humor that keeps them from being scary. And as much as Jisung wants to be a kid and all of the other trainees want to treat him like one, there’s something about the image of the alpha idol that gets to him.

Someday, maybe not now, but someday--he’s going to have to be like that, isn’t he?

 

Doyoung (Jaehyun/Doyoung/Taeyong) (M)

Doyoung gets jealous sometimes. Jealous of his own boyfriends, just for being with each other and sometimes he wonders if they get jealous of him too. Doyoung likes the way that Jaehyun gets protective of them, the way that his eyes shine when he looks at Doyoung and kisses him softly because Doyoung is so precious to him (even if Doyoung has told him a million times that he won’t break if Jaehyun kisses him harder). He loves the way that Taeyong gets clingy on their days off, the way that he’ll pin Doyoung down on his bed and just lay on his chest and press kisses to his cheeks and eyelids and nose, not because he’s teasing but because Taeyong is just affectionate like that sometimes.

It’s hard for them to be intimate together, all three of them. The beds in the dorms are barely large enough for two people squished together, let alone large enough for three. So they settle for being intimate in pairs, and Doyoung wonders if the others keep tally of the times the way that he does, so that he knows he’s not favoring one of them over the other.

Sometimes he walks in on Taeyong and Jaehyun together, and he debates with himself about whether he should leave it be--let them have their time together like they would do for him--or if he should come in, just for a minute or two, to kiss each of them and sit beside the bed and watch them together. Taeyong likes losing control, likes being controlled, and he looks so pretty when Jaehyun is knotted inside him and he’s still coming down from his high. And even though they’re both on birth control and probably will be for the next ten years, Doyoung likes to rub his fingers along Taeyong’s stomach and whisper in Taeyong’s ear about how beautiful he would look carrying Jaehyun’s baby.

When they’re all cleaned up, Jaehyun will try to fit all three of them onto one bed even though he knows it never really works but Doyoung and Taeyong will both end up half on his chest, sides pressed against each other, to try to make it work.

Doyoung gets jealous, sometimes, but that’s okay. Because they’re both his.

 

Taeil (Unrequited Taeil/Sicheng) 

Taeil doesn’t know how to express it--there’s just something about Sicheng that’s so loveable. He knows, as a beta, that he really doesn’t have any ground to like Sicheng as much as he does, but he can’t help it. He just wants to love him, any way that he can.

Which is why he tries his best to make Sicheng feel welcome, to the point that he’s worried he might even be mothering him a bit. And maybe, as a beta, he comes off more as a friend than as a lover. He can’t blame Sicheng for interpreting it that way, even if there was no language barrier and Taeil could tell Sicheng everything he felt, because beta love is soft, and companionate, and not the type of passionate love that alphas and omegas share. That’s what people tell Taeil, anyway.

Taeil can be soft and companionate. Because he’d rather be Sicheng’s friend than his coworker. Because he knows that being Sicheng’s lover is out of the question.

 

Renjun (Jeno/Jaemin/Renjun) 

They’ve been together for a few months now, since Jeno and Jaemin told him that they both want him. But as much as Renjun likes them, loves them, even, he always feels a little awkward with them. Because they’ve been together for longer than either of them have even known him.

“Nana, it’s just like the time we switched out Mark’s shampoo and he ended up getting all those curls that he had to comb every morning for like a week!” Jeno says while they’re watching some American comedy and Jaemin laughs and Renjun has no idea what they’re talking about.

And even when he’s cuddled between the two of them on the couch--they have to protect their precious omega boyfriend--he still feels a little out of place. Because the two of them are just a little more in-sync with each other, because they know each other’s moods and stories like the back of their hands and to Renjun they’re a pair of books that he’s barely started to read.

And they end up sleeping on the couch instead of in their beds and when Chenle throws a pillow at them to wake them up in the morning, Jeno places a kiss on Renjun’s cheek as he stretches and Jaemin whispers, “Let’s get ready for the day, alright, love?”

Maybe they’re stories he hasn’t finished reading yet, but he promises himself that he’s going to finish those stories, memorize all the details, no matter how long it takes.

 

Yukhei (Yukhei/Jungwoo)

He’s always thought that he likes girls, but the way that Jungwoo smiles at him could convince Yukhei otherwise. Jungwoo has this angelic air, and it’s something that Yukhei couldn’t describe fully even if he pulled together words from four languages to try. And he’s not sure if Jungwoo’s just the exception or if there’s a part of himself that likes omega guys that he never thought about before, but Yukhei knows that he’d give anything to make Jungwoo laugh.

Yukhei takes Jungwoo out ice skating, and maybe Jungwoo’s doing most of the guiding because Yukhei can’t actually skate (Jungwoo can’t either, but he’s doing better than Yukhei) but when they sit down at the side of the rink and Jungwoo leans his head against Yukhei’s shoulder and presses his hands into Yukhei’s (“It’s cold,” he insists), Yukhei thinks that maybe he’s falling a lot harder than he thought he was.

An hour of falling against the ice in dramatic fashion and using the railing for support later, they’re giggling together and Jungwoo calls him by the new stage name that he’s going to be introduced by in a few months, and gods, Jungwoo could call him any name and he’d think it was the most beautiful name anyone has ever given him.

Back at the dorm, as they’re shucking off their gloves and scarves and coats, Jungwoo pulls Yukhei towards him by the lapels of his shirt and presses their lips together and Yukhei knows that falling for Jungwoo was one of the best decisions he ever made.

 

Chenle (Jisung/Chenle)

It’s silly, the way that Chenle likes being near Jisung. Maybe it’s the fact that they’re the youngest, but they understand each other and Chenle feels everyday more like he’d be lost if he was anywhere except by Jisung’s side.

And they don’t talk about it, and they don’t act on it, and they’ll blush and turn away if the other becomes too obvious about it, but it’s there. And sometimes, when they’re all together with 127 and Dream together, Yuta will send Chenle a glance when he sees him and Jisung together, and Yuta almost looks like he’s warning him, and Chenle pretends he doesn’t know why.

They’ll watch the hyungs fall in love and fall out of love and they’ll say that they’ll never be like that (if they were to be in love, because they’re not, definitely not) because they’re young. And just because everyone else has made mistakes, doesn’t mean they will. Definitely not.

But hey, they’re kids. They’re allowed to be optimistic.

 

Jungwoo (Yukhei/Jungwoo) (Implied M)

Jungwoo doesn’t know how he fell for Yukhei, because Yukhei’s loud and foolish and basically the human version of a puppy, and Yukhei’s still kind of a kid, even if he’s legally an adult, but Yukhei’s so fucking endearing and sincere and he tries. Even when he has no clue how to say something in Korean, he tries.

Yukhei likes to try to surprise Jungwoo. He’s bad at it, because he’s a bit of a blabbermouth on good days, but he’ll ask Kun to teach him how to cook things, and then he’ll make them for Jungwoo. And Jungwoo will eat the slightly burned Chinese food that Yukhei made for him, because love makes everything tastes better. Or Yukhei will try to find things for them to do on their free days. They never have a repeat of the ice rink, though. They’ve learned their lesson about how they do on ice.

Jungwoo is Yukhei’s first boyfriend--he didn’t realize until they were in bed together and Yukhei seemed a bit lost as to what he should do, but Jungwoo guides him through it and, like everything he does, Yukhei tries his best. He’s not the best, not the first few times, but he’s so enthusiastic and there’s just so much love in him that Jungwoo can’t find anything to fault.

Jungwoo loves his overexcitable alpha, and he wouldn’t have him any other way.

 

Sicheng (Taeil/Sicheng and Yuta/Sicheng, both unrequited)

He must be some kind of a beta magnet. That’s the only explanation he can come up with for why Taeil and Yuta both seem to want him so much. And sure, it’s nice to be pampered--Taeil can be a bit overbearing at times--but he doesn’t really feel the same way about either of them and it hurts him to admit it.

Taeil is a friend, of course, as is Yuta, but he knows that they both love him more than he could ever love them. And that doesn’t feel good. He feels guilty, he feels lonely, he wishes that he felt something for one of them just so that he could find some reason why he didn’t like the other. Sometimes, not loving someone hurts just as much as loving them.

 

Jeno (Jeno/Jaemin/Renjun)

He knows that people expect him to be the most dominant, most commanding, most whatever member of their relationship, but despite being an alpha, Jeno just isn’t that person. Jaemin’s his beta, but somehow Jaemin’s always been able to control him so much better than Jeno’s ever been able to control anyone. And Renjun may be an omega, but he’s fierce enough to scare off alphas all on his own.

Sometimes, Jeno likes to think that maybe the three of them are all just three pieces of one soul and somehow the three pieces ended up in the wrong bodies. Maybe his soul piece should’ve been in Renjun’s body, or at least Jaemin’s, and he knows Jaemin's should’ve been in his. That would’ve been more natural, wouldn’t it?

Jeno contemplates a lot of things that don’t really need contemplating. Soul pieces aside, he wonders about whether it was some kind of destiny for them to find each other, because even when it was just him and Jaemin, he could always tell something was missing. And maybe that’s just human memory messing with him, and he never could tell something was missing until Renjun showed up to fill the empty space, but either way, he’s so glad Renjun’s here.

And maybe they’re all a bit wrong, but they’re wrong together.

 

Donghyuck (unrequited Mark/Donghyuck)

Mark’s good at ignoring things. It’s been what, three years now, since Donghyuck’s been basically shouting at Mark that he loves him? And still, this dumb alpha still pretends he doesn’t know what Donghyuck’s trying to tell him. And Donghyuck knows why, he knows that Mark insists he’s not into guys but Donghyuck really doesn’t care because Mark has been his for as long as they’ve known each other.

“Hey,” Donghyuck sits down on the edge of Mark’s bed. “Pay attention to me.”

Mark sighs and puts down his phone. “What do you want, Hyuck?”

“You,” Donghyuck says, and Mark rolls his eyes. “Really, though, I just wanted to tell you that Jaemin stole that one shirt you were looking for yesterday.”

Mark raises an eyebrow. “Why did Jaemin take my shirt?”

Donghyuck shrugs and moves to sit next to Mark, so they’re squished together on the bed and Mark is already sighing to himself as he grabs his phone again and Donghyuck can’t find it in himself to care.

“Donghyuck, you know--”

“I don’t care,” Donghyuck says. He lowers his voice so that only Mark could hear, even if the other members were eavesdropping. “I really don’t care if you don’t actually love me. But can you at least find it in yourself to pretend a little better?”

 

Ten (Johnny/Ten)

Ten knows it’s stupid. He knows that Taeil’s in love with Sicheng, and that Johnny would never hurt him like that, and that he should just stop worrying and focus on his own promotions. But there’s something about the way that Johnny and Taeil loop their arms around each others’ shoulders and smile for the camera (like a happy couple, Ten tries not to think) that makes Ten’s skin itch.

He’s honest enough with himself to admit that maybe, just maybe, he wishes that he had been in 127 too. That he wasn’t stuck living in a different dorm, being the center of promotions that never involve Johnny. That he didn’t have to watch passively as SM encouraged _his_ alpha to do skinship with others for fanservice. The worst part is whenever they send 127 abroad, and Ten is left to sit and watch all of the photos and videos of the fucking fanservice without even being able to go cuddle with Johnny for a half hour or two to remind himself that no, Johnny meant it when he claimed him.

That’s the other problem. The claiming mark that he didn’t bother to hide when he debuted, yet wasn’t allowed to tell a soul on earth that it was Johnny who put it there. The other members know, of course, but Ten doubts that their managers have even allowed the information to travel up the food chain that is the other SM artists. And forget about the fans knowing it was Johnny--some of them suspected, but it was never confirmed and the claiming mark just became one of those fandom mysteries that fans eventually get used to never having an answer to. Ten can’t help but feel that he, himself, is going to become like the claiming mark eventually. Once interesting, now forgotten unless pointed out.

“I hate the feeling I get when you’re gone,” Ten mumbles into Johnny’s shoulder while they cuddle together on Johnny’s too-small bed, because it somehow means more than _I miss you_ and less than _I wish you would never leave my side._

“I know,” Johnny says. “But that just makes the moments we have together more special, doesn’t it?”

Johnny kisses him, and he presses him into the bed and practically worships the skin of his chest and arms and Ten is reminded why he let this beautiful alpha claim him two years before, barely a month before Ten stood on stage and debuted without him. Because Ten wants some reassurance that they’ll always be there for each other, SM be damned. Because this is the only alpha he can ever imagine himself raising a family or even a dog with. Because Johnny’s been left behind before.

Ten just worries that maybe he’s the one being left behind.

 

Kun (none)

Everyone always calls alphas hormonal, says that alphas would like anything with a pulse. And maybe that’s why people who meet Kun guess he’s a beta. He’s even had a few people guess he’s an omega, and sure, he likes to cook and he can be kind of protective of the other members, but he’s an alpha. He’s always been an alpha.

Even if he’s never been attracted to anyone.

He’ll admit that he’s sensitive about the other members jokingly calling him “mom.” He’s had too many people say that he’s not a real alpha, that he must be some kind of mistake, that he should’ve been an omega. But that wouldn’t solve his problem either, because it’s not just the typical alpha lust that he’s missing, it’s romantic attachment too. And maybe people will say he should’ve been a beta, but even betas fall in love.

Kun loves, but he doesn’t fall in love. Maybe he just fits in nowhere.

 

Jaemin (Jeno/Jaemin/Renjun) 

Jaemin loves his boys. He loves his alpha and he loves his omega and he loves them because they’re so different and because they love each other and because they love him. And maybe there’s a part of him that wants to take care of them, that notices how well the three of them work together, but he can’t imagine a life without them.

It hurt, sitting out, but his boys were still there for him. And the other members are there for him. They’re there for each other.

And when they have an 18-person sleepover in one of the dorm living rooms and half of them are laid over each other and Jaemin kisses Jeno and Renjun goodnight and Doyoung smiles at him, Jaemin knows that he has found his place.


End file.
